Welcome reader to my blog - a mixture of this and that. Now that we are living in a retirement community in downtown Columbia, MD my personal gardening activities are somewhat curtailed. I still enjoy visiting gardens, reading, watching wildlife on my walks, traveling, and occasional food commentary. Please leave a comment if you feel inspired to do so. I read every one of them.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Another trip with Vantage House. This time to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.

Arthur Sackler donated his collection of Asian art to the Smithsonian Institution with the stipulation that a museum be built. This one is attached to the Freer Gallery of Art but unlike that gallery that is above ground this one goes down several stories from the initial ground floor.

We came to see the exhibit called Turquoise Mountain. I'll share that in my next post.

We also spent some time in the exhibit on the Art of the Quran but no photos were allowed in there.

In the center stairwell is this monkey sculpture.

Each section represents the word monkey in a different language.

It based upon the story of a monkey that looked down into a pond and saw the moon. He got his monkey friends to make a long chain but when the last one reached the pond and tried to pick up the moon it disappeared.

Monday, November 21, 2016

I have returned home from my sojourn in Cornish Flat, NH helping out my daughter and her family for the last three weeks. My husband joined me there on Thursday last and we drove home in two stages Saturday night and Sunday morning arriving shortly after 2 o'clock.

Saturday morning we were fortunate to be in Cornish in time to visit the Cornish Historical Society that is open very irregular hours. In the years Emily has lived there this was her first visit to it.

The story we were told was that the safe that kept all the township records was quite heavy and the three elected selectman for the township got tired of toting it from place to place, so this brick building was built to hold the safe. Later the addition you see in the back was put on to serve as the township jail.

The building now houses quite a mix of things, from books about Cornish to books written by Cornish authors (J.D. Salinger of Catcher in the Rye was one of them) to all sorts of historical mementoes donated by residents. This is one such donation.

D.H. Hilliard was a gunsmith in the 1900s.

One of the prize possessions at the Historical Society is this musket fired in the battle at Concord, MA as the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Dan is holding it and he is 6'3" so you can see how tall it is. He said it was quite heavy too.

Here's the Historical Society member putting it away. He didn't show us the other rifles in that closet.

Here's the uniform of a Civil War officer, last name Chase.

I think he was a relative of the gentlemen below.

Lots of medals.

A Civil War canteen or so the card says.

An unknown soldier of the Civil War.

The Historical Society has their stuff stashed in various places in the township. When I asked about old photos that may show my daughter's house long ago he said there was an exhibit in the township offices. Of course those offices were not open that day. Save that for another trip to Cornish, NH.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

I'm sharing what my husband wrote today about the election results. I wish I could share his optimism. Maybe later.

Wednesday, November 9 2016 – The Day After

All the pundits, pollsters and press were wrong. The greater of two evils won the election.I suspected this could happen.It was disappointing to my half of the country’s population, to say the least, that such a shallow man with questionable intellect and more than questionable values could convince half of us that he’s the best candidate to be the face of America.It’s kind of embarrassing.

What I worry about the most is the impact of him following through on his vapid, simplistic solutions for our nation’s complex problems. What will that do to the nation’s debt, the world’s environment and the advancement of civilization?

The fortunate thing is there are checks and balances – even within a one party government. And there are probably a few level heads somewhere that will mitigate the worst possible mistakes.But, just as with the election, no one knows the future.So all we can do is live each day to the fullest and look for opportunities to make the world a little better right where we are.

Meanwhile, I’ve moved from despair and disappointment to distancing. The good things are that (1) with this choice, the country didn’t break down into mobs and (2) the damn election is over.Even with Trump, can we move forward to a better country and world?I’m ever the optimist as I think most Americans are.

Something good may yet come out of this. The truth is no one knows what it means for the future.